Charlie gegen alle

As soon as he signed on to a lucrative one-year contract with Essanay Studios late 1914, Charlie Chaplin traveled at once from the warmth of Southern California's Keystone Studios to his new digs in Chicago, where Essanay had its headquarters. Not only was the money better at Essanay, but the studio gave the young comedian more freedom and time for teh development of his movies.

Chaplin's first scenario he wrote and directed for Essanay was January 1915's "His New Job," a fictional embellishment paralleling his new position at Essanay. The opening scene shows Chaplin going into the film production studio office to interview for a job. Seen in her first movie role as an office secretary is 15-year-old Gloria Swanson, soon to be a huge film star. Also, in one of only a handful of movies he's teamed up with Chaplin during his Essanay days is janitor-turned-main comic for the studio, Benny Turpin. And new to Chaplin was his name appearing for the first time in the opening credits. Since Keystone kept his entire tramp wardrobe, Chaplin personally was force to shop around Chicago to buy duplicate clothing.

A rewarding start for Chaplin's year with Essanay.

Am a big fan of Charlie Chaplin, have been for over a decade now. Many films and shorts of his are very good to masterpiece, and like many others consider him a comedy genius and one of film's most important and influential directors.

The first effort from his Essanay period after leaving Keystone, 'His New Job' is not one of his very best or even among the best of this particular period. It shows a noticeable step up in quality though from his Keystone period, where he was still evolving and in the infancy of his long career, from 1914, The Essanay period is something of Chaplin's adolescence period where his style had been found and starting to settle. Something that can be seen in the more than worthwhile 'His New Job'.

'His New Job' is not one of his all-time funniest or most memorable, other efforts also have more pathos and a balance of that and the comedy. The story is still a little flimsy, there are times where it struggles to sustain the short length, and could have had more variety.

On the other hand, 'His New Job' looks pretty good, not incredible but it was obvious that Chaplin was taking more time with his work and not churning out countless shorts in the same year of very variable success like he did with Keystone. Appreciate the importance of his Keystone period and there is some good stuff he did there, but the more mature and careful quality seen here and later on is obvious.

While not one of his funniest or original, 'His New Job' is still very entertaining with some clever, entertaining and well-timed slapstick and a sly satirical element. It moves quickly and there is no dullness in sight.

Chaplin directs more than competently, if not quite cinematic genius standard yet. He also, as usual, gives an amusing and expressive performance and at clear ease with the physicality of the role. The supporting cast acquit themselves well, including a cameo from Gloria Swanson.

In summary, well worth your time if not a Chaplin classic. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Besides being pretty good in itself, "His New Job" is also interesting in that it is a clear improvement over the previous features that Charlie Chaplin had made when he was with Keystone Studies. While the Keystone features were not bad, and often contained some excellent material, overall they generally gave the appearance of having been thrown together quickly, which often left a lot of unrealized potential in some of their ideas and themes. And, while these Essanay features themselves were usually not quite as good as his later Mutual features, they did give Chaplin a chance to perform quite a few kinds of material, and most of them are well worth seeing.

In this one, Charlie's character is competing with some other hopefuls who are trying to break into the movies. Ben Turpin and Charlie have quite a few scenes together, and although their scenes are primarily knockabout slapstick, they do work well as a team. The action takes place in several settings, and on average it is fairly creative in its use of the settings and props. Most of the gags come off all right, and overall the feature works pretty well.

There is something uniquely charming about the short comedies that Chaplin made that poke fun at his art form or that show us a little bit of the mechanics of how these movies are made. The most notable example other than His New Job is the charming and fun Behind the Screen, although this film is a lot of fun, too.

It starts out in the waiting room, apparently for the opportunity to interview for a job as a film extra. He immediately begins flirting with a woman in the room, and soon does the old hat gag where someone demands that he take it off but he keeps putting it back on, finally doing that cute trick where he flips it up in the air. I feel like I've seen him do that in at least four or five films, although I have to say that he does it best in The Immigrant.

It seems that the characterization is getting pretty developed by this point, and that the little tramp has earned a good following of fans who want to see him in each new Chaplin film. There is less and less effort put into giving him a role in each film, he generally just comes out and plays himself.

There are lots of traditional Chaplin antics in the waiting room as he competes for the film extra position, although when he finally gets into the interview room and blows into that earpiece, it might be the first time I've literally laughed out loud at one of these short comedies in quite a while.

Charlie is dressed as a soldier for his part in the film within the film, although as is to be expected, things soon go wrong and his lack of acting talent becomes abundantly clear. I always find it a little amusing when actors play roles in which, at some point, they lament the fact that they have no acting talent.

But my favorite part of the film is that it shows us behind the scenes, what some of the film sets looked like back in 1915. I always find it fascinating when I catch a glimpse of something real in these old movies, even if it's something tiny, like wafting smoke or the unintentional movement of curtains or a throw rug. It is endlessly fascinating to me to imagine what it was like to really be there, what the set looked like to the naked eye, in real life and in color.

Here, we are treated to some shots of the inside of the soundstage, which I guess is the next best thing. Generally, the movie is clever and fun, but other than some interesting behind the scenes shots there's really nothing new here. The ending is even a little violent, but this is still one of the more fun of Chaplin's earliest work.

How appropriate that after leaving The Keystone Studios Charles Chaplin's first picture with the Essanay Studios was titled 'His New Job'. Although, new job in the new studio where Chaplin was allowed more creative freedom, this movie is nothing spectacular. The plot is quite loose and Chaplin uses all his old tricks he became known in the Keystone pictures. Chaplin's Tramp is still quite far from the loveable fella whom the world learned to admire. For me, the other silent comedy giant, Ben Turpin, managed to steal the whole show from Chaplin in this one. The fictional movie company in the movie was named Lockstone, an obvious jab at The Keystone. Not quite the riot fun like the poster promises neither it's very memorable but entertaining movie nonetheless. This movie is the first where Charles Chaplin starts to shine as a director.

Gloria Swanson also makes a screen appearance - the girl Chaplin is having a conversation with at the beginning of the movie.